Delhi HC asks AAP to reply on foreign funding plea

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought responses from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its founding members, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on a plea seeking registration of a criminal case on the ground that the newly formed party allegedly received foreign funding in violation of various laws.

"Let a copy of this writ petition be supplied to Prashant Bhushan who appeared on behalf of AAP. Let a response be filed four days prior to February 28, the next date of hearing," a bench headed by Justice Pradeep Nandrajog said.

Bhushan, who has also been made a party in the petition besides AAP, accepted the notice and strongly opposed the earlier submissions of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) that the party and its leaders have not responded to the queries on foreign funding.

"A misleading statement was made on behalf of the government counsel on the last date of the hearing that we have not responded to the queries,” Nandrajog said.

"Each and every query has been responded to in great detail," he said.

Additional Solicitor General Rajeeve Mehra, appearing for MHA, said, "I did not say that they (AAP) are not providing information. What I had said was that the information regarding the bank details was not provided."

"You had said that," the bench said and fixed the matter for further hearing on February 28.

The Centre had earlier told the court that AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, had not provided the information sought by it on the funding received by the party.

Besides Kejriwal and Bhushan, petitioner advocate ML Sharma has made AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Shanti Bhushan as parties in his PIL.